This article is an opinion based on facts and is meant as infotainment. Don’t freak out.

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There’s a common denominator that all bad cities have.

They are the places that have bad economies. They are the places where the school systems are in bad shape. They’re the places where people are out of work, and where residents earn low salaries.

If home prices are low, it’s a sign that there’s not a lot of demand to live there.

And certainly, if crime is really high, no one wants to be there at all.

The cities below all share those qualities. There might be some surprises on this list, but when you look at the unbiased data, it’s hard to argue against. We had more than 10 million people read our worst cities in a state series, which was featured in hundreds of media outlets, including an NPR feature.

So we know what we’re talking about.

After analyzing the biggest 220 cities in the country, here is our list of the worst cities to live in America:

You might be surprised to see some of these cities on this list. We understand there’s a lot of good in every place. However, according to data (which doesn’t measure things like beauty, ‘friendly people’ and community involvement), there are far better options in America for making a place home.

How do you decide if a place is lousy or not?

In order to rank the worst places to live in America, we had to determine what criteria people like or dislike about a place. It isn’t a stretch to assume that people like low crime, solid education, things to do and a stable economy.

So we scraped the internet for those criteria, asked for the opposite of those, and it spit out the answer. Like magic.

How we crunched the numbers for 2018

We threw a lot of criteria at this one in order to get the best, most complete results possible. Using FBI crime data and the most recent government census American Community Survey data, this is the criteria we used:

Population Density (The lower the worse – meaning there’s less to do for indoor entertainment)

Highest Unemployment Rates

Adjusted Median Income (Median income adjusted for the cost of living)

Low home prices

A lot of uninsured individuals

A high portion of uneducated adults

High Crime

High Poverty

If you’d like to see the complete list of cities, scroll to the bottom of this post to see a link to the entire data set.

Note: We get the crime numbers from the FBI, which gets its crime numbers from the cities themselves.

3. Dayton

Population: 141,143Home Values: $66,600 (2nd worst)Unemployment Rate: 13.3% (12th worst)
If you live in Dayton, this might not be a surprise, but you have the 34th highest crime rate, per capita in the country. Every year you spend here, you have a 1 in 19.5 chance of being the victim of a property crime like a car break in or home invasion robbery.

That’s a lot of stolen cell phones, laptops and black license plates.

Plus there were 1,402 violent crimes in the last FBI reporting year. That means if you spent a year there, you’d have a 1 in 100 chance of being raped or attacked.

Finally, the folks who live here earn the 3rd lowest salaries in America’s big cities at $28,745 a household — that’s simply not enough to get by for most folks.

4. Detroit

Population: 683,443Home Values: $41,000 (1st worst)Unemployment Rate: 22.1% (1st worst)
Detroit seems to be the have’s and have not’s. But mostly the have nots.
The annual average income levels here aren’t respectful ($26,249), and about 1 in 4.5 people here are without jobs (The worst in the country). Homes are valued at only $41,000 (also the worst).

We’re surprised it didn’t rank higher honestly, but apparently people are relatively smart and also buy insurance.

5. San Bernardino

Population: 214,581Home Values: $176,800 (95th worst)Unemployment Rate: 14.1% (7th worst)
Perhaps the only thing surprising about San Bernardino being 5th is that it wasn’t higher. Crime here is horrible, more than 1 in 10 residents are without jobs (and that’s conservative), and well… we could go on and on about San Bernardino’s issues.

You’ve heard it all before. When considering the data, the only reason San Bernardino is only 5th is that there are some areas of the city in which residents earn professional salaries, and, frankly, there’s a lot more to do in the San Bernardino region than there is in the desert. And no, dodging bullets isn’t one of them.

But as professionals continue to flee into the nearby enclaves of East Highlands, Yucaipa and Redlands, the city of San Bernardino, which saw its glory days spike in the late 1970s, will continue to head down the drain and unfortunately, become an area only for those who have no aspirations to exceed in life.

Here’s what science says about why Brownsville needs some love: The unemployment rate is nearly 9.4%, residents earn about $34,255 a year, and home prices are just over $83,800. Across the board, those are in the bottom half in the country. Not absolutely horrible, but not desirable, either.

And there simply isn’t anything to do in Brownsville relative to the rest of the country.

9. St. Louis

Population: 316,030Home Values: $120,900 (42nd worst)Unemployment Rate: 10.6% (36th worst)
If you live in St. Louis, you’re either going to tell us we’re idiots because you’re fiercely protective of your city, or you know it’s a tough place to live. The fact remains, St. Louis has the one of the highest unemployment rates in the country, where 8.2% of the population is out of work. That’s far above the national average, and households only bring in $34,384 a year on average.

You can’t buy very many Cards tickets with that income.

And then there’s the crime. St. Louis is the 3rd most dangerous place you can live in America. You have a 1 in 15 chance of being robbed here every year, and a 1 in 62 chance of being raped, attacked or killed when you’re in the city limits. Plus, there were 120 murders in St. Louis two years ago.

Which means that when you’re within St. Louis proper, you have a 1 in 2,654 chance of being killed every year.

10. Mobile

Population: 193,717Home Values: $119,500 (35th worst)Unemployment Rate: 9.4% (58th worst)
Mobile rounds out the list coming in as the 10th worst place to live in America for 2018.

You’ve got the 12th highest crime rate, which saw 1,709 violent crimes last year. You have a 1 in 16.5 chance of being robbed and a 1 in 113 chance of being attacked, raped or killed here for every year you spend in the city limits of Mobile.

Plus, folks are simply out of work. Mobile sports the state’s 58th highest unemployment rate (9.4%), and families bring in a combined $38,759 a year, which is far below the average.

No wonder homes are cheap; you can get one yourself for only $119,500.

There You Have It

If you’re looking at cities in the U.S. where crime is high, people are broke, and the public schools are lousy, this is an accurate list.

30 thoughts on “These Are The 10 Worst Places To Live In America For 2018”

Over and over again they say that science doesn’t measure things like how nice people are, that it measures fact. Listen, science measures people’s feeling and attitudes all the time. The author’s clearly don’t understand “science”. Also, using median income as a happyness measure in a college town ia just flat out an errror. Why is the tone of this so snotty??

I left Macon over 35 years ago. Best decision I ever made. I’m so much better for it. My lite was going no where. I couldn’t find a job that paid well. The people I left behind wish they had gone with me. I have a BSW degree and retired with Over 20 years in the military. I am happy where I am located now. When I visit Macon I see it worse. The house I sold several years ago 30K is still standing could have gotten much more for it here. Sorry but I am so blessed to have seen that leaving would be beneficial to me in 1979. It was the circumstances that forced me to leave. Now I can say thanks to the Crisis. It made me better.

This is comical. The “science” of this article has holes in it that can be seen by even those of us who do not put all our thought into scientific criteria. It does not seem that making an assumption that using the criteria for coming up with best cities in reverse would be accurate. Things don’t work that way. To use criteria such as low home prices…mmm? Is this saying cities with high home prices are the best to live in? There is some reversal logic not making sense already. I know I have never used high home prices as a positive for moving to a city.

Macon is a beautiful city with great potential for growth and prosperity. It is not the city itself that makes it one of the worst cities in which to live, but the dumbass people who manage the city and the fucking lazy ass no good criminals that gives it such a bad reputation. There are places much worse in the country!!! Get your facts straight before you publish such poorly substantiated articles.

Savannah is a crappy place to live because of the stupid southern local people that grew up here. Women like to visit, but very very few decent white ones live here. Black people are very racist, and red necks are as stupid as can be. Jobs? If you’re a queer lawyer you’re good, but not so good for the rest of the folks. Crime is bad, and income is low. So come and visit, but don’t settle down here.

When you think about it this is really a review of these cities from the bottom up. So yeah if you are unfortunate to be poor or even lower middle class in any of these places it really can be depressing. However, if you are fortunate enough to be reasonably affluent in these same locations that money can go a long way and make life pretty good. You know, the kind of lifestyle that people like to read about it Garden & Gun. The public schools in the upscale suburbs outside these cities can actually be pretty good (and if you have money to burn there are always the established private schools). There are no hour plus commutes to and from work in bumper to bumper traffic. Also with the cost of living so low in these places a lot of folks have the means to actually travel somewhere nice for family vacations. It all depends on whether your glass is half-full or half-empty.

Suggesting dollars spent for education is the only criteria and validation for ‘good education’ is flawed, unscientific logic. It could be just as likely that cities that throw dollars at the education issues they have, have those issues because of inefficiency. More money doesn’t necessarily guarantee better results.

Also saying: “you can’t argue with the data” in no less that two places in the article points to weak research. If anything, it calls it more into question.

Lastly, with no northeast cities in the ‘worst’ list (Detroit being the Midwest) it suggests a bias from the writer; especially with the chronic and rampant opiate abuse that is so prevalent there. Heroin addiction and the crime it brings wasn’t a metric? Low population density IS a negative metric? What is the writer smoking? It’s a very thin justification to suggest more people crammed into an area is a ‘good’ thing. That’s a real stretch and so is the suggestion that affordable housing is a sign of negative circumstances. Lower household income balanced with lower cost of housing is a positive (or at least a neutral) factor. Bubble gum writing to draw clicks. Nothing more.

Mobile has a certain magic that keeps you on your toes. Where a melting pot of people, flavors, cultures and traditions become one voice to lead all of life’s celebrations. Join the jubilee and welcome every day with an enduring passion and a little soulful hospitality, because life is the ultimate gift. This is the spirit of living. This is what we’re born to do.
Funky, feisty, festive. Or historic, hip and happening. Colorful, cool and cultured. You can call this coastal town a lot of things when you have a vibrant 300 year history with lots of stories to tell and long-standing traditions celebrated on a regular basis. Once called the Paris of the South, Mobile has long been the cultural center of the Gulf Coast and you’ll find an authentic experience found nowhere else in the southern United States.
Home to America’s original Mardi Gras that rolls through the streets of our historic downtown; dozens of festivals, art shows, or culinary cook-offs nearly every weekend, Mobile takes having fun pretty seriously. If you’re looking for a bit more leisurely experience, nearby historic neighborhoods lined with giant live oaks trees or a paddle in one of the most significant river delta systems in the country are just minutes from downtown.

I know several people who live in Springfield, MO. None have ever had any issues with crime. It’s also one of the lowest cost of living cities in the country. People there are extremely friendly and there are tons of things to do in close proximity. This so called “data” is laughable.

I’m pretty sure all this site is about is bashing the South.
Very bad science at that.
I would even be willing to bet they haven’t been to any of the cities they trash. Just some moron a thousand miles away sitting in a cubicle staring at his phone all day.
But hey, a Southern Man don’t need them around anyhow.

The cities in central California are less bad than midwest cities?
I have lived and worked in both areas and can tell you first hand Central California is a hot dusty drug infested crime ridden war zone, oh then there are the Tule fogs when make winter driving really interesting: 50 car pile ups any one?
Stockton had to downgrade its ER status because it was overwhelmed by the number of trauma cases being dumped at its door way. Bakersfield is almost as bad, Modesto is boring and dangerous, Fresno is turning into a free fire zone. As for SF, it is OK if you are gay, have absurd amounts of money, and do not mind stepping over the piles of human excrement on the side walk and panhandlers who verge on being strong arm robber.

“There are lies; then there are damn lies; and then there are statistics.”

It should surprise no one that more detailed and definitive rankings show that some of the cities in your worst half are considered the very best places to raise a family, or the very smartest places, in the United States of America.

This list was obviously prepared by lazy bigots looking for a convenient outcome.

The robbery comment for Springfield, MO makes no sense. For 2013, the robbery rate was 242.2 per 100,000 residents. That’s 24.2 per 10,000 and 2.42 per 1,000. One-eleventh of 100,000 is 9,091 then adjusted for Springfield’s population, that would be more than 14,000 robberies per year when in fact there were 390. Maybe the writer was referring to theft. However if the writer doesn’t know the difference between theft and robbery they shouldn’t be analyzing statistics.

Seriously, who’s in charge of the photos on this page? Have they ever been outside a tropical climate? Palm trees are just common place all across the Midwest? FFS – you had ONE job ass hole!

FYI Detroit is a shit hole! The thing is, while Detroit’s neighborhoods are awful, downtown around the stadiums, casinos and various halls there is so much going on there. Everyone left Detroit and moved to the suburbs. That’s why, while Detroit’s population plummeted over the past 30+ years, the overall region continues to grow.